Dog Tags

CHAPTER 86

WILLIE WAS SITTING IN THE HOTEL LOBBY BAR, DRINKING BEER AND WATCHING TELEVISION. He’d been there most of the night, trying to limit the number of beers he had, since he wanted to stay alert. He hadn’t seen M all day, and was beginning to think that he was no longer there. Russo’s guy had said he might have left, and it appeared to Willie that he must have.

All of a sudden staying alert became easy when a breaking news story came on the screen reporting that M had been killed in the process of breaking into Andy Carpenter’s house.

Willie watched for five minutes, but they didn’t mention whether anyone other than M was hurt. He then went out to the lobby, where he could hear better, and called Andy on his cell phone.

His relief when Andy answered was palpable. “Andy, you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Andy said. “Where are you?” In the excitement he had momentarily forgotten that Willie had gone off in search of M.

“Everett. Up in Massachusetts.”

“Right. I think it’s safe to come back now.”

They talked for a brief time, since Andy had to get off to answer more police questions. Willie promised to get a flight back the next morning.

But there was plenty of time until morning, so Willie went back to the bar to have a few more beers and watch the TV coverage. He wasn’t going to be chasing M that night, or ever, so he could drink without worrying about staying alert.

Jason Greer came into the hotel a few minutes later. He had been repeatedly admonished by M to stay out of public view as much as possible, since his picture had been one of those that Carpenter had shown on Larry King.

But M hadn’t called in the two days since he left, and Greer had been going nuts in the room. So he went out to a fast-food restaurant, using the drive-thru so that customers wouldn’t see him.

Then, when he returned to the hotel, he did what he had been doing all along, which was self-park the van rather than use the valet. This was far less to avoid being recognized than to prevent anyone from seeing what was in the locked rear section of the van.

Greer walked down the lobby toward the elevators, casually looking into the bar and the televisions that were on in there. He stopped in his tracks when the first thing he saw was the picture of M, and a graphic saying that he had been killed.

Trying to control his rising feeling of panic, Greer went into the bar to watch the television and find out whatever he could. He didn’t notice Willie Miller drinking a beer at the end of the bar, nor would it have meant anything if he had. He didn’t know who Willie was, or what he looked like.

But Willie noticed him.

He couldn’t be sure, but he had a good eye for faces, and he thought he recognized Greer from the picture Andy had shown on television. And the way Greer was staring at the screen, trying unsuccessfully to hide the look of confusion and fear on his face, made it far more likely that he was right.

Willie went out and called Andy again, doing so from a vantage point where he could see the bar. No one answered, so Willie left a message in which he said that he thought he was looking at Greer, but he wasn’t sure.

As he was getting off the phone, Greer was leaving the bar. Willie followed him and got on the same elevator. Greer pressed 9, and Willie briefly debated whether he should press a different floor so as not to look suspicious. He decided to go to 9 as well, since Greer would have no reason to think that Willie was tailing him. If a potential tail, probably a cop, knew Greer’s whereabouts well enough to be in the hotel, there would be little reason to follow him to his room. They would have other ways of learning the room number, if they didn’t know it already.

Willie caught a break when Greer got off the elevator and went to room 942, which was almost directly across from the elevator. Willie was thus able to walk past him as if heading for a different room.

Willie then went to his own room, which was on the third floor, to watch more of the coverage and figure out his next move. He couldn’t be sure it was Greer; his mind and memory could have been playing tricks on him and causing him to be overly suspicious.

But it would be worth a day or two to find out, even though the idea of more time alone in Everett was not all that appealing. Regardless, he would stay and keep an eye on Greer.

The question he needed to answer was how.